Tacos are so hot right now. If you’re a taco, you’re hash-tagged every Tuesday, you’re the go-to for weeknight cooking, you are a pantry staple, and you’re devoured within seconds of being served. If you’re a taco, you’re trending + extremely popular + accessorize well with others. You may even be on a cool t-shirt. Basically, Tacos are the new black. So what’s taco soup? Tonight, Carter decided to re-name this soup to Chicken Taco rather than Chicken Tortilla because, “Mamma, this is just like a taco in my soup bowl.” And he’s right! We poured a little soup in the bowl, topped with crushed tortilla chips, cheese and avocado.…
Omni Hotel Chicago Review
Two weeks ago we had the privilege of staying at the Omni Hotel Chicago for Chloe’s 7th Birthday celebration! It was wonderful and I wanted to share with you why we selected this property. It offered an American Girl Package: including an American Girl Doll travel bed, slippers, bath robe, PJ’s, welcome note, special treats and free breakfast. Since it’s winter and we were walking, we wanted something close to the actual store/cafe. This hotel was two blocks from the American Girl Doll store. Easy for the kids to walk. The price point was nice. Literally, the amount of American Girl Doll items probably added up to be at least…
Skiing & Nut Allergies
The kids have been asking to ski for quite a while and now that they are a little older, 7 and 4.5, we decided to invest in youth ski helmets, goggles, and gear. There is a ski hill about 45 minutes from where we live, Cascade Mountain and their ski school had amazing reviews online, so we tried it. Cascade Mountain is a ski area that I grew up loving in my teens and early twenties and it holds many great family memories. Showing my littles how to ski and enjoy this outdoor sport has filled me with utter joy. We chose to register online for Cascade Kids Ski School…
Chloe's Top 5 Sun Butter Snacks
If you had a chance to check us out on IG live today @nutfreemomblog, Chloe gave a little demo on her “made-up” recipe for after school snacking with Sun Butter. It was pretty cute, and included her favorite……MARSHMALLOWS! Yum. Chloe’s top 5 favorite after school Sun Butter snacks: Sun Butter Apple Donuts Slice one honey crisp apple on it’s side, core facing the wall, into thin slices. With a small round cookie cutter, or paring knife, cut out the middle where the seeds would be. Do this to all of the slices. Spread Sun Butter on the apple slices + top with your favorite sprinkles / Enjoy Life chocolate chips. Sun…
Dunkin Donuts, Not So Safe!
Stop! Before you eat that donut at Dunkin with PN/TN allergies!!!! It turns out, EVERY Dunkin LOCATION IS DIFFERENT. when it comes to dining out, no matter where you go always check on the policies in place, just like you would a label on packaging. I posted a few months ago about Dunkin Donuts and how SAFE I thought they were. A friend of mine visited a Dunkin in our area (not my usual Dunkin) and said that they did not have a handle on allergies, nor would confirm that the items she was purchasing were free from trace amounts of peanut or tree nuts. Today I called the Dunkin…
Online Grocery Shopping & Tipping
With Amazon Prime Now, Metcalfes grocery delivery, Hy-Vee grocery delivery and Peapod so graciously bringing us our goods, we have to be mindful of tipping! Tipping is still expected, even as new services like these become mainstream and already include a service fee. That Panera you just had delivered? Yep. Tip. Groceries delivered with a fee? Yes, you still tip. What if you order groceries online, but choose to do in-store pick up? Yes. Someone else did the work for you, still tip them $1 per bag. This kind of tipping is different though. It reminds me of the European tip of, “a few dollars to show you’re grateful for…
New York Times Risotto
Wisconsin was almost 50* on Saturday creating some amazing outside play time with gorgeous shining sun! We took advantage and played in the yard to shake off the winter grumps. It was wonderful. When we came inside, we were pooped and watched a movie and meal planned for the upcoming week. I don’t recommend the My Little Pony movie. As I was reading the New York Times today, I found a tasty risotto recipe. I love risotto and so do the kids. It’s like fancy mac n cheese. It takes a long time to make, but it’s a labor of love and you can literally see the creamy goodness set…
The Mom Re-Set
So you’ve had a week, or a month or even a year (Do you like that reference right there?! Love Friends!) that has just been MEH. Right? I have. So how do you re-set? Start over? Feel better as a Mom who’s always ON? Well, here’s my top 5 and if you follow me on IG, you saw my night out last night, which was AMAZING and so necessary! 5. Pick a solid 4-6 hour of time and block it. Find your babysitter or service, or grandma and grandpa or spouse and just block off your time. Don’t do this too far in advance, you never know what could pop…
American Girl Birthday
Have you ever had a week where no matter how hard you tried to make something happen, it just wasn’t going to happen. Like the universe is against you for some reason? That is this week and Friday cannot come soon enough. Last week our kiddos were down for the count with what I’m guessing to be the flu or some virus resembling it. Well, I thought we were in the clear. I did my due diligence (and if you now how ocd my family can be about cleaning, you’re laughing right now) and cleaned every surface and hardwood floor with hot water + vinegar, bleached all the bathrooms, washed…
Roasted Vegetables & Quinoa
There’s that word again. Quinoa. Keen-wah. What is this stuff? Well, quinoa is considered to be a whole grain but it is a seed that can be prepared like rice or barley. Quinoa is cool because it’s flexible and can be used in many different recipes and the flavor is neutral so it goes with lots of cool things. Just like the color black. I love black. When in doubt wear black. With more black. Kids love quinoa, I call it pasta balls because it’s basically the same thing. If you make quinoa with a flavored liquid, like vegetable stock or chicken stock opposed to just water, you’ll enjoy it…
The Mom Drawer
The kitchen is the heart of the home. It’s the pilot of the plane, queen of the castle, commander in chief, the central gathering place every time we host a get-together. No matter how hard we try to entice guests into other rooms of our home, the kitchen is the hub. Everything happens here and naturally guests want to be part of what happening. Cooking, drink shaking, conversation, dessert unveiling, guests like action. So why not make part of the kitchen more functional for what we do every day? I started thinking about this idea when we had company over the holidays and I automatically shoved all of my “mom…
Allergy & Family Friendly Chicago Hotels
We’re pretty picky travelers when it comes to choosing the right hotel for our family get-away. The last thing we need is poor sleep, cranky kids and overtired parents in an unfamiliar environment. Not only do we travel with two little buddies ages 7 and 4, we also have food allergies. Most of the time we roll with it, but we do like to know in advance how much we can eat as a family at the hotel, or if we need to stock up on safe snacks. Chicago is a place we travel to fairly regularly, either as a couple or family for some fun activities and good eats. Today…
Nut-Free Cupcake Delivery
YES! Delivery from a dedicated nut-free bakery DOES exist!! It is in Chicago of course but we LOVE this option as we visit the city enough to make this useful. Next weekend we’ll be in Chicago celebrating my daughter’s 7th Birthday at American Girl Cafe! She chose Chicago family weekend over a party with friends, and I’m totally loving this idea! Doordash and Uber eats are behind this delivery service for Nutphree’s Bakery in the Chicagoland area. Nutphrees has the most incredible custom cakes I have ever seen. Nutphrees is a family run bake shop that started small due to their own kid’s food allergies. Nutphrees now distributes all over…
Broccoli Slaw Shrimp Stir Fry
Promises, promises. I said yesterday I would post this recipe, so here it is. We didn’t make it due to the flu, but I’m posting anyway. Ingredients 1 tbsp coconut oil 2 tsp grated fresh ginger (microplane) 2 cloves garlic, minced 1.5 pounds, peeled, deveined wild shrimp, sprinkled with ground ginger, onion powder, sea salt and pepper 1 (12 oz) package of broccoli slaw 1 cup shredded purple cabbage 4 green onions, end removed, rough chop 2-3 tsp toasted sesame seeds if you do not have nut allergies, 1/3 cup unsalted cashews would be amazing with this, but alas, not for us. Ingredients – Sauce 1/4 cup fresh orange juice…
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